Hello all,
I am a 28 year old married non-trad with no kids and have been in my job for 9 years. I recently decided that I should pursue my electrical engineering degree. I am currently an electronics technician and am really burnt out. I am very good at my job and that has never been a problem for me but recently things have been going on to really disillusion me with my career. I am the type of person to need to be at the top of their field technically. I don't mind answering to someone else and certainly don't need to be my own boss, but I need to be someone others look to for answers. I have always been that to some degree in my current job, but I am still overlooked by engineers despite many years of experience and a lot of knowledge of the field because of my title. I am looking to improve my station and I think electrical engineering would be an okay career if medicine doesn't work out. Electrical/Electronics comes easily to me so I know I could make a good long career out of it but that's not what my heart wants.
Medicine has always been a distant idea in my head that I have wanted to pursue but never thought I could do because of finances and the time involved to succeed in school. I have had health problems in the past which are mostly resolved now, but having spent some time in the hospital and subsequent visits with my doctors I developed a fascination with what they do and how they make decisions and how they come to their conclusions. I always thought that I would like to provide that service to someone else. Well, I decided I need a change in my life, or really an overhaul, and thought why not now? I am financially stable and stable in my job. The only thing that might be difficult in pursuing this is getting time off to go to class. However, I can always take leave without pay.
My current GPA is a 3.12 with 129 credit hours. I added up the rest of the hours I have for my EE degree and all the premed classes and came to 72 hours left. If I can maintain a 3.8-4.0 for my classes remaining then I can raise my GPA to between a 3.37 and a 3.44 cumulative. I don't know whether the engineering classes I have taken count towards a science GPA or not but I have only taken 2 physics classes and got an A and a B. Those are the only science classes I believe I have taken. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please. So I hope on this front that means I will have the chance to get a high science GPA.
The EE program I am in is all online and I was under the impression that medical schools will not count any prerequisites taken online. I have a 4 year university nearby that offers the prerequisites I need in person so that will work I think. The only problem is that I will need to rearrange my schedule at work to accommodate it.
I will be volunteering at a local hospital for a few hours every weekend to see how I like the environment and plan on taking a phlebotomy course this fall so that I can get some real clinical exposure and it wont hurt to work a little on the weekends as well.
So in all, I will be working full time 4 days a week, attending a phlebotomy class after work on one of those days, taking 6 hours of online course work, volunteering for about 4 hours on the weekend and working about 8 hours as a phlebotomy tech on the weekend starting in the spring.
TL/DR; Will my online undergraduate work count for medical school as long as I take the prereqs in person? Do engineering classes count towards the science GPA? Does my plan sound complete? Is there anything I am missing? I thought I might see about shadowing my PCP that I am on good terms with after this first semester to see what it is like. Is that a good idea?
Thank you everyone
I am a 28 year old married non-trad with no kids and have been in my job for 9 years. I recently decided that I should pursue my electrical engineering degree. I am currently an electronics technician and am really burnt out. I am very good at my job and that has never been a problem for me but recently things have been going on to really disillusion me with my career. I am the type of person to need to be at the top of their field technically. I don't mind answering to someone else and certainly don't need to be my own boss, but I need to be someone others look to for answers. I have always been that to some degree in my current job, but I am still overlooked by engineers despite many years of experience and a lot of knowledge of the field because of my title. I am looking to improve my station and I think electrical engineering would be an okay career if medicine doesn't work out. Electrical/Electronics comes easily to me so I know I could make a good long career out of it but that's not what my heart wants.
Medicine has always been a distant idea in my head that I have wanted to pursue but never thought I could do because of finances and the time involved to succeed in school. I have had health problems in the past which are mostly resolved now, but having spent some time in the hospital and subsequent visits with my doctors I developed a fascination with what they do and how they make decisions and how they come to their conclusions. I always thought that I would like to provide that service to someone else. Well, I decided I need a change in my life, or really an overhaul, and thought why not now? I am financially stable and stable in my job. The only thing that might be difficult in pursuing this is getting time off to go to class. However, I can always take leave without pay.
My current GPA is a 3.12 with 129 credit hours. I added up the rest of the hours I have for my EE degree and all the premed classes and came to 72 hours left. If I can maintain a 3.8-4.0 for my classes remaining then I can raise my GPA to between a 3.37 and a 3.44 cumulative. I don't know whether the engineering classes I have taken count towards a science GPA or not but I have only taken 2 physics classes and got an A and a B. Those are the only science classes I believe I have taken. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please. So I hope on this front that means I will have the chance to get a high science GPA.
The EE program I am in is all online and I was under the impression that medical schools will not count any prerequisites taken online. I have a 4 year university nearby that offers the prerequisites I need in person so that will work I think. The only problem is that I will need to rearrange my schedule at work to accommodate it.
I will be volunteering at a local hospital for a few hours every weekend to see how I like the environment and plan on taking a phlebotomy course this fall so that I can get some real clinical exposure and it wont hurt to work a little on the weekends as well.
So in all, I will be working full time 4 days a week, attending a phlebotomy class after work on one of those days, taking 6 hours of online course work, volunteering for about 4 hours on the weekend and working about 8 hours as a phlebotomy tech on the weekend starting in the spring.
TL/DR; Will my online undergraduate work count for medical school as long as I take the prereqs in person? Do engineering classes count towards the science GPA? Does my plan sound complete? Is there anything I am missing? I thought I might see about shadowing my PCP that I am on good terms with after this first semester to see what it is like. Is that a good idea?
Thank you everyone
